That would be your distinction....

"Horvath" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 09:08:31 -0800, "Jonathan Ganz"
wrote this crap:

Bob, I'm surprised at you. You ALWAYS WIN.

So...You're the biggest loser on the internet?




This signature is now the ultimate power in the universe

Capt. Mooron wrote:

Heh Wally.... good to see you're still in the pond so to speak. :-)

Thank you, Captain. It's a good hang-out (although the blossoming affections
between Bob and Bill are an odd thing to see). Anyway, how long is your next
stint in the Arctic expected to last?


--
Wally
www.artbywally.com

"Wally" wrote in message
...
| Capt. Mooron wrote:
|
| Heh Wally.... good to see you're still in the pond so to speak. :-)
|
| Thank you, Captain. It's a good hang-out (although the blossoming
affections
| between Bob and Bill are an odd thing to see). Anyway, how long is your
next
| stint in the Arctic expected to last?

A month on the next contract and by then hopefully one of our bids should be
successful and I'll be staying for another project. I'm hoping to keep
working until April and then drive my friend's truck from Yellowknife to
Halifax before the Mackenzie Ice Bridge closes... that's usually around
April15th.

That should net me the 50K I need to live the rest of the year without
having to work.... and I can collect pogey for 6 months as well to offset my
bar tab.

CM

Capt. Mooron wrote:

A month on the next contract and by then hopefully one of our bids
should be successful and I'll be staying for another project. I'm
hoping to keep working until April and then drive my friend's truck
from Yellowknife to Halifax before the Mackenzie Ice Bridge closes...
that's usually around April15th.

You'll be hoping for cold weather in April, then? :-) Good luck with the
on-going contract - can't beat an extension if it pays well, especially if
the work's interesting/fun.


That should net me the 50K I need to live the rest of the year without
having to work....

That's a tidy wee haul for a few months. :-) Looking for some more work
myself - my last bagful of cash is depleted. I normally do IT, but I've been
gradually moving into CAD work in the construction industry. (IT has become
too specialised around here for an all-rounder, and there are too many
specialist bods chasing the jobs after IT redundancies at the big financial
houses.)

Last construction job was drawing layouts for two million yellow dots to a
*very* precise brief - pin-point accurate positioning on irregular,
sorta-ovoid, sectional windows up to 30m long and 3-4m high. They were
screen printed onto the glazing (inside laminated glass) for a seriously
bendy building (Selfridge's new flagship department store in Birmingham). I
semi-automated the drawing process by making ACAD and Rhino jump through
hoops. (That was the key skill that got me the contract - automation and
coding is kinda outwith the average construction draftsman's skillset).

Then I did loads of 3D brackets to hold the glass to the building - worked
purely to a Rhino model of the structure - not a right angle anywhere, no
flat surfaces to be had apart from the floors and the glazing panels. The
main contractor worked to the same model and made the building by spraying
concrete onto a huge reinforcing steel mesh. The brackets went where they
were supposed to, the glass went onto the brackets, and it all fitted
together. All effectively tele-worked - I've never seen the building in the
flesh. *Damned* interesting stuff. :-)


... and I can collect pogey for 6 months as well to
offset my bar tab.

I had to look up "pogey" and found out it's a Brit term - never heard it
round these 'ere parts. :-)


--
Wally
www.artbywally.com

Cad personnel are in high demand up North. Especially good ones. Have you
had any experience with Eagle Point? It's an add on to Auto Cad for high
volume modeling of Roads and does all the cut/Fill volumes as you go.

Ekati Diamond Mines is always looking for skilled Cad people. It only pays
about 100K Cdn a year and it's a camp job but the camp is high tech and has
all the toys. High Security as well. 2 weeks in and one week out. Discount
flights on a global basis. Lots of the Cad folk do work in Yellowknife on
their time out. It almost doubles their pay.

Pogey... Yeah... the "dole"... unemployment insurance. Only pays me $700
every 2 weeks but that cuts the cash flow from my savings a lot. I only need
about 40K a year to live quite comfortably. I only owe 6K and all my toys
are paid for as well as my house and land.

I can ask around when I'm up north if you want to try working up there.

CM


"Wally" wrote in message
...
| Capt. Mooron wrote:
|
| A month on the next contract and by then hopefully one of our bids
| should be successful and I'll be staying for another project. I'm
| hoping to keep working until April and then drive my friend's truck
| from Yellowknife to Halifax before the Mackenzie Ice Bridge closes...
| that's usually around April15th.
|
| You'll be hoping for cold weather in April, then? :-) Good luck with the
| on-going contract - can't beat an extension if it pays well, especially if
| the work's interesting/fun.
|
|
| That should net me the 50K I need to live the rest of the year without
| having to work....
|
| That's a tidy wee haul for a few months. :-) Looking for some more work
| myself - my last bagful of cash is depleted. I normally do IT, but I've
been
| gradually moving into CAD work in the construction industry. (IT has
become
| too specialised around here for an all-rounder, and there are too many
| specialist bods chasing the jobs after IT redundancies at the big
financial
| houses.)
|
| Last construction job was drawing layouts for two million yellow dots to a
| *very* precise brief - pin-point accurate positioning on irregular,
| sorta-ovoid, sectional windows up to 30m long and 3-4m high. They were
| screen printed onto the glazing (inside laminated glass) for a seriously
| bendy building (Selfridge's new flagship department store in Birmingham).
I
| semi-automated the drawing process by making ACAD and Rhino jump through
| hoops. (That was the key skill that got me the contract - automation and
| coding is kinda outwith the average construction draftsman's skillset).
|
| Then I did loads of 3D brackets to hold the glass to the building - worked
| purely to a Rhino model of the structure - not a right angle anywhere, no
| flat surfaces to be had apart from the floors and the glazing panels. The
| main contractor worked to the same model and made the building by spraying
| concrete onto a huge reinforcing steel mesh. The brackets went where they
| were supposed to, the glass went onto the brackets, and it all fitted
| together. All effectively tele-worked - I've never seen the building in
the
| flesh. *Damned* interesting stuff. :-)
|
|
| ... and I can collect pogey for 6 months as well to
| offset my bar tab.
|
| I had to look up "pogey" and found out it's a Brit term - never heard it
| round these 'ere parts. :-)
|
|
| --
| Wally
| www.artbywally.com
|
|
|

Capt. Mooron wrote:

Cad personnel are in high demand up North. Especially good ones. Have
you had any experience with Eagle Point? It's an add on to Auto Cad
for high volume modeling of Roads and does all the cut/Fill volumes
as you go.

The name sounds vaguely familiar, but I haven't used it - haven't done stuff
with roads yet. Building envelope is the field I've worked in so far
(structural glazing, curtain walling, cladding, roofing), all learned on the
job. I got a start through a friend when I inadvertently showed him I can
think in 3D after messing around with ACAD completely cold. ("Hey, you can
do this! Want some work?"). I think can see what Eagle Point is about - give
it a drawing of a path, maybe a survey of the topology of the terrain
(soil/rock), give it parameters, and it spits out quantities, yes? (I'll
look it up on Google...)


Ekati Diamond Mines is always looking for skilled Cad people. It only
pays about 100K Cdn a year and it's a camp job but the camp is high
tech and has all the toys. High Security as well. 2 weeks in and one
week out. Discount flights on a global basis. Lots of the Cad folk do
work in Yellowknife on their time out. It almost doubles their pay.

CAD in diamond mines? What do they draw - support structures?


Pogey... Yeah... the "dole"... unemployment insurance. Only pays me
$700 every 2 weeks but that cuts the cash flow from my savings a lot.
I only need about 40K a year to live quite comfortably. I only owe 6K
and all my toys are paid for as well as my house and land.

I ain't there yet, but my living costs are lower than the average around
here.


I can ask around when I'm up north if you want to try working up
there.

I have a couple of feelers out in my area at present and I should hopfully
know what's happening with them early next week. $100k Cdn is a bit more
than I'd get contracting here, and it does sound interesting, but the travel
is the downside. That said, if my feelers fall through, I may well be up for
it. If you're away before I know what's happening here, could you stay in
touch with me via email?


--
Wally
www.artbywally.com

"Wally" wrote in message
| The name sounds vaguely familiar, but I haven't used it - haven't done
stuff
| with roads yet. Building envelope is the field I've worked in so far
| (structural glazing, curtain walling, cladding, roofing), all learned on
the
| job. I got a start through a friend when I inadvertently showed him I can
| think in 3D after messing around with ACAD completely cold. ("Hey, you can
| do this! Want some work?"). I think can see what Eagle Point is about -
give
| it a drawing of a path, maybe a survey of the topology of the terrain
| (soil/rock), give it parameters, and it spits out quantities, yes? (I'll
| look it up on Google...)

It's based on input from a total station.... all the topographic
delineations are entered in the fields and you down the coordinates from the
data collector. Then it's just a matter of entering the new alignment data
and pining the horizontal and vertical control points.


|
|
| Ekati Diamond Mines is always looking for skilled Cad people. It only
| pays about 100K Cdn a year and it's a camp job but the camp is high
| tech and has all the toys. High Security as well. 2 weeks in and one
| week out. Discount flights on a global basis. Lots of the Cad folk do
| work in Yellowknife on their time out. It almost doubles their pay.
|
| CAD in diamond mines? What do they draw - support structures?

Yup... pits dams containment ponds, blast quantities, environmental data. It
all has to be kept in strict control.


| I have a couple of feelers out in my area at present and I should hopfully
| know what's happening with them early next week. $100k Cdn is a bit more
| than I'd get contracting here, and it does sound interesting, but the
travel
| is the downside. That said, if my feelers fall through, I may well be up
for
| it. If you're away before I know what's happening here, could you stay in
| touch with me via email?


That might be difficult unless I can get to a modem or sat uplink. I'll cont
act you from your website.

CM

Capt. Mooron wrote:

It's based on input from a total station.... all the topographic
delineations are entered in the fields and you down the coordinates
from the data collector. Then it's just a matter of entering the new
alignment data and pining the horizontal and vertical control points.

Had a wee look at the web site - the particular package is RoadCalc, I
believe. More complex than I initially envisaged (does clever stuff to
integrate services and the like). I like the way it integrates the
topographical data to produce a 3D model - very slick.


CAD in diamond mines? What do they draw - support structures?

Yup... pits dams containment ponds, blast quantities, environmental
data. It all has to be kept in strict control.

Got the idea.


That might be difficult unless I can get to a modem or sat uplink.
I'll cont act you from your website.

Okay. I don't want to say yes just now - wouldn't want you to go asking
around on my behalf if the thing fell through at this end. I also need to
try and establish if the work you're talking about is something I can step
up and do - roads and mines are new to me. While taking on the unknown and
learning it fast is something I'm good at, the fact that it's an unknown
introduces an element of uncertainty. :-)


--
Wally
www.artbywally.com

"Wally" wrote in message

| Had a wee look at the web site - the particular package is RoadCalc, I
| believe. More complex than I initially envisaged (does clever stuff to
| integrate services and the like). I like the way it integrates the
| topographical data to produce a 3D model - very slick.

Yeah... that's it. The plans produced are Profile and Aerial only though. I
generally shoot all the info into delineated groups such as rock outcrops,
water, tree lines etc..... so all the data input from the total station is
colour coded to reflect the field info. This allows the Cad operator to
indicate if the cut /fill is blast rock or sub-excavation work as well as
the quanties of clearing which will be encountered to prep and grub the
area.

Don't kid yourself.... engineering/ construction outfits have a high demand
for good Cad personnel. It pays well and engineering is as steady as the
mortician's trade. We're always building stuff..... Cad Techs are in on the
preliminary through to completion on any project.

| Okay. I don't want to say yes just now - wouldn't want you to go asking
| around on my behalf if the thing fell through at this end. I also need to
| try and establish if the work you're talking about is something I can step
| up and do - roads and mines are new to me. While taking on the unknown and
| learning it fast is something I'm good at, the fact that it's an unknown
| introduces an element of uncertainty. :-)

No sweat.... I'll keep my ears open and forward your email to interested
parties. Picking up the technique is simple as long as you have a grasp of
the basics. I believe they are planning a major bridge across the Mackenzie
River as well. That would be structural cad design.

I won't do Cad work because it's indoor work and my interest is in the field
work. My motto is is "Even a Bad Day in the Field beats a Good Day at the
Office"! ;-)

CM

Capt. Mooron wrote:

No sweat.... I'll keep my ears open and forward your email to
interested parties.

I'm still waiting to see what pans out here, so it's best for me to say that
I'm interested in the Canada idea, but not right now. If you think it would
still be a good idea to pass on my address, then I'd appreciate that - a
better one to use would be tonal at my ISP, blueyonder co uk. Thanks either
way. :-)

Have a good next stint up north!


--
Wally
www.artbywally.com